Why Old people hardly make new friends

Posted by Felix Okoli on Wednesday October 22, 2014 at 15:16:28:

While we are young and growing up, it was easy making friends but what I've found out is that it gets harder to make friends as you go old. While I can still easily make friends, I've noticed that it's not that easy with some old people that I know like my parents and their mates.

If you have a growing number of friends, you should enjoy them now and try to keep because it seems that it gets harder or less fancier to make new friends as one ages. I don't know if it's because old people get more introverted, spiritual or something like that. But many of them don't really die old with a lot of friends and that why they say, it gets lonelier as you age.

Most people over 50 or 60 find it hard to make new friends. Some of them can easily do it but still prefer to avoid going that line. Why is this so? Why do older people hardly make new friends even when their existing old friend have started dying off.

Some reasons I've noticed are:
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- They are content with their existing friends or lifestyle
- They don't want more responsibilities
- They can't manage more friends
- They find it hard to trust new faces
- They want to keep their secrets intact
- They don't have the energy to be social enough.

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I think younger people can actually help older people make new friends through a variety of ways such as marriage, friendships, social clubs and so on. If a young person gets married for instance, he automatically creates friendship between the parents of both families as they become in-laws. Young people can also enroll older people into social clubs or fellowships for old people. It could be a club, religious organization or some other social meeting with people within their social class.

Some older people actually prefer not making new friends at all and love their simple life. You shouldn't push them more than they want if you are related to them. It's part of the aging process.